ASTHMA CASES RISE AMONG YOUNGSTERS

Published: November 7, 1992

CHICAGO, Nov. 6—
Childhood asthma is on the rise around the country, causing 10 million missed days of school each year and 200,000 hospitalizations annually, according to a new Federal study.

"Asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood," said Dr. William R. Taylor of the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the lead author of the study conducted by the agency. "It's the leading cause of days lost from school."

Dr. Kevin B. Weiss, an asthma researcher at George Washington University, who did not take part in the study, said it provided the first nationwide data confirming regional reports that asthma is striking children at an increasing rate.

The study, published Thursday in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics, said 2.7 million children suffered asthma in 1988, the latest year for which data are available.

That was 4.3 percent of all children under the age of 18, as against 3.2 percent of that age group in 1981, the previous year in which asthma data were collected in a similar Federal study, the researchers said. Blacks More Affected

Asthmatic youngsters who are black suffered more impairment in daily activities and more frequent hospitalizations than youngsters of other ethnic groups, according to the study, co-written by Dr. Paul W. Newacheck of the University of California at San Francisco.

That may be because blacks, who lack health insurance more often than whites, are more likely to wait until the last minute to see a doctor, often relying on hospital emergency-room care, Dr. Taylor said.

"When dealing with a chronic disease, we need to focus much more on preventing dysfunction," Dr. Taylor said. He said studies show educating both patient and family would help children get care earlier.

Thirty percent of the sufferers had some limitation in activity, as against a 5 percent rate of limitations of activity in non-asthmatic children, the researchers said.

Over the course of a year, the researchers said, asthma caused the sufferers to miss 10.1 million school days.